After nearly five hours of racing, the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual has been red flagged as due to technical issues with the race server.
The race is currently being led by the #22 2 Seas Motorsport ORECA 07-Gibson driven by Isa Bin Abdulla al Khalifa, Oliver Rowland, Rory Macduff and Devin Braune, who were due a pitstop when the red flag came out.
Braune had been in second place behind the #20 Team Redline ORECA 07-Gibson of Greger Huttu, which was leading the race after Atze Kerkhof passed Veloce Esports’s Stoffel Vandoorne in the third hour. Kerkhof shares the car with F1 stars Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the latter of which started the race and put the car in contention early on.
Verstappen was running in the top three behind Vandoorne and leader Kelvin van der Linde in the #30 E-Team WRT ORECA. Van der Linde had himself inherited the lead after polesitter Tom Dillmann was handed a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start, but suffered a disconnect in the second hour of the race.
Fernando Alonso had his own drama in the second hour as a technical glitch while serving a drivethrough penalty due to an earlier infraction left the Spaniard stuck on the side of the track without fuel. It appeared Alonso’s #14 FA/RB Allinsports ORECA became the first retirement, but the organisers have seen confirmed that the car will be allowed to reenter the race.
The #89 R8G Esports Team Corvette C7R of Daniel Juncadella, Mathias Beche, Erhan Jajovski and Risto Kappet. leads GTE as the red flag was called during the pitstop cycle, but the class lead was very much in the hands of the #93 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Güven, Josh Rodgers and Tommy Ostgaard.
The Porsche and Corvette had an intense battle in the early hours, with the Porsche arguably quicker on pace, but the Corvette having the advantage in fuel economy, allowing them to extend their stint longer.
This means that Corvette holds a one-two lead at the time of the stoppage, with the #39 Corvette leading ahead of the #63 factory-entered C7R of Jordan Taylor, Nicky Catsburg, Alex Voss and Laurin Heinrich and the #93 Porsche 911 RSR in third place.
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